DressUp Max
by Icycreamluff
Summary: oneshot. Max has to dress up for school and hates it. Fang, on the other hand, loves it. Fax.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or anything associated with it; James Patterson does.**

_I hate school, I hate school, I hate school…_The mantra kept repeating over and over in my head.

"Max? You're starting to give me a headache…" Angel frowned, wrinkling her little nose cutely. "I know you don't like school, but don't worry! You're going to look so pretty today and Fang's going to love it."

Me, pretty. Ha. Ha. And Fang loving it? Yeah right. He'd make fun of me for days once he saw me in this stupid outfit…all because our dumb English teacher told us he'd give everyone an F on their speech if everyone wasn't all dressed up and looking nice.

Looking nice? Me? No way. I'm Maximum Ride, tomboy, the girl who rolls through mud, sleeps in trees, fights mutants in the sky…not a pretty freaking princess. Or a Barbie doll, which I definitely felt like today.

"Yeah! You're going to look soooooooooo cute, and your clothes are just awesome – I mean, of course they are, because I picked them out and all and that green color really contrasts well with your eyes, and your hair looks soooo good, or at least it will, once we finish doing it and all, and I just know that everyone's going to love - " Nudge stopped her rapid flow of speech, noticing the death glare I was shooting her, and winced. "Okay, sorry, sorry. We're almost done, I promise."

"It's already been like 3 hours. How long does it take?" I groaned, not willing to look in the mirror and see what kind of horrible monstrosity I'd been turned into.

"It's been less than an hour, Max." Angel replied easily, attaching something that felt suspicious like a bow or a flower to my hair. "There! All done."

Knowing that I couldn't resist looking at myself all day, I reluctantly turned to the mirror. The girl who stared back at me was a stranger, or an alien, or something. She had her blonde and brown-ish hair in perfect curls, clipped back with a green bow. Her face looked actually…pretty, and she had the right amount of makeup on. She was wearing some sort of green, girly shirt that to Max seemed too low-cut, and a blue and yellow knee-length skirt with flowers on it.

"That's…me?" I gaped, turning to look at Nudge and Angel, who were both grinning widely. "Do you just love it?" Nudge exclaimed.

I sighed, turning back to look at myself in the mirror. Okay, so I didn't look like such a freak, but I sure felt like I did. What was Fang going to say? He was probably just going to laugh his ass off, and so were the other people at school. I just did not ever dress like this, or really put any special consideration into my hair or face besides washing them, of course.

"Um…yeah guys, thanks. It's great. You should run off and get ready for school yourselves, though. We're gonna leave soon." I told them, watching as they scampered off.

I got the rest of my stuff ready for school in my room and headed to the door to go out into the hallway, but I froze before I could get there. My mind was focused on what Fang's reaction would be, and butterflies were having a freaking disco party in my stomach when I thought of my best friend turned sort of boyfriend.

No. Wait. Maximum Ride is no girly-girl; she's independent, doesn't care what guys think, and always looks fantastic. Right. Trying to stream those thoughts through my mind over at over, I took a deep breath and left the room, heading downstairs into the kitchen.

There, the rest of the flock was already eating Iggy's wonderful food in the kitchen, and I steeled myself for the worst mockery ever as I reluctantly entered the room. It never came. Nudge and Angel were just smiling happily, Gazzy's mouth was open in a wide 'o' of surprise, Iggy of course couldn't see anything, so just went on eating like normal, and Fang…

He had paused with a piece of toast halfway to his mouth, outwardly staring at me with a strange kind of intensity in his deep, dark eyes that I wasn't sure if I'd ever seen before. A small, half-smile danced on his lips and I thought that my heart was seriously going to explode from nerves and new feelings that Fang always brought to the surface.

"You look nice," was all he said, though. I could tell it wasn't sarcastic. There was an intense honesty in his tone that hinted that there was much more that he could say, but of course he didn't. This was Fang, after all. He was more of a man of action, not of words.

I still couldn't believe he wasn't making fun of me. Maybe he actually liked how I looked? Didn't think I was a freak for dressing like a girly-girl?

"Max, chill out. Fang thinks you look pretty, okay? Don't worry." Angel chirped up from her seat, and I shot her a look while Fang simply smirked, but said nothing else.

Well, I was definitely going to have a talk with him later.

That 'later' happened to be on the car ride to school. Fang had gotten his license, or maybe he'd just forged one, but it didn't really matter – we'd probably be on the run in a few weeks anyways, and he was a good enough driver to manage the roads. He and I drove to school in a car that we'd rented with some extra credit card money, while the younger kids, plus Iggy, took a bus.

We were driving along in silence – slightly awkward, but not too bad. I was just looking out the window as we traveled down the road to the high school, when suddenly I heard him speak.

"I wasn't lying at breakfast, you know. You do look nice. More than nice." Fang said, as eloquent with his words as always.

Annoyingly, I couldn't help a pink blush traveling up my neck and onto my face. Hopefully he didn't notice. I was sure Angel and Nudge had caked on enough makeup to probably hide my real skin, so maybe it was invisible.

His smirk said otherwise.

I was going to reply with some sarcastic comment, like usual, but I found that, weirdly enough, I just wasn't in the mood for it at the moment.

"Really? I mean…you don't think I look stupid, or too girly?" I questioned, refusing to break my gaze from the window in unnecessary worry about what expression I would find on his face.

We reached a stop light, and Fang took the time to reach over and gently grab my chin with a hand, turning my head until I was looking at him and he was staring intently at me, with all honesty and caring displayed on his face, which was unusual. Usually Fang was completely unreadable, even to me, but now…he looked like he was really making an effort to calm me down.

"Really," he murmured softly, in a low voice that made my insides go all melty and gooey, as much as I tried to stop it. "I don't think you look stupid, and you don't look too girly. You look the perfect amount of girly, alright?"

He released my chin and went back to driving as I floated along in a happy state of bliss. Maybe this day would actually turn out to be great! Fang pulled the car into the parking lot and parked in our normal spot, turning the car off and hopping out.

As I did the same, grabbing my backpack and putting it over my shoulders, I frowned as I realized what he was wearing. Same tight black t-shirt (that showed off his well-muscled body) and black jeans. That wouldn't have been unusual, but he was in my English class too!

"Hey!" I protested, frowning as we walked inside. "You didn't dress up."

Fang shrugged. "I made some negotiations with the teacher." He muttered, and I glared at him. No way was that fair! I had to dress up like an idiot and he got to wear the same thing he wore all the time? Maybe this dressing up wasn't such a bad thing, though…Fang certainly seemed to like it, and…so did pretty much all the other guys in school, as I realized from looking around as we walked into the building.

As we passed, guys were standing staring at me with their mouths wide open. I swear I even saw some of them drooling. Did I really look that different?

I heard Fang growl angrily under his breath and felt him put his arm around my waist, pulling me tightly to him as one boy pointed between himself and me and then made a vulgar movement that may or may not have been a pelvic thrust.

"Don't be jealous," I laughed as we walked down the hallway to our lockers. "I'd never ditch you for one of those guys. How would I live without your hilarious jokes, your bubbling personality, and - "

"My stunningly attractive looks?" Fang interrupted in a sexy tone.

Flushing again, I try to play it off cool and rolled my eyes, shoving him in the shoulder. "Yeah, sure, those. Whatever."

Eventually, we got to our lockers and then to the first of our classes. I got through my speech in English fine, though it was a little strange to notice not just Fang's, but all of the other boys' eyes locked on me the entire time.

We had to part ways for 4th period when I went to Biology and he went to Statistics, and after my science class was done I weaved my way through the crowd of people down the hallway, trying to find Fang before lunch started.

Instead of finding my boyfriend peacefully leaning against my locker waiting for me, this is what I heard as I approached a large crowd of students, mostly males, seemingly talking about me:

"Yeah, have you see Maddy, or Mary, or whatever her name is today? The one that's always with that emo guy? She's looking so hot today."

"I know! Those legs? Killer!"

"I think I'm going to invite her to Craig's party tonight, maybe get her a little drunk, see if I can get lucky…"

"No, man, that's what I'm going to do! I can't wait to see her with her clothes off and - "

The poor kid never got to finish his sentence, because all of the sudden out of nowhere, Fang had arrived and overheard what they had said as well, and appeared pissed beyond belief. He didn't say much, as per usual, but his eyes were burning intensely with hatred and rage as he beat up the last guy that was talking.

Grabbing him by the collar, he growled, "Don't even think you have a chance with my girlfriend. Stay away from her, or I will kill you piece by piece." Without even using swear words, he still managed to be scary as hell.

Quickly, the school security arrived and pulled Fang off of the guy, carting him off to the office where he was probably going to get suspended. I caught his eye as he walked off and gave him both an amused and annoyed look at once.

Around seven pm later that night, I was just sitting Indian-style on my bed doing my history homework when I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind. Normally I would have freaked out and gone all killer-Max on their ass, but I could tell when it was Fang, and continued with my work as I felt his weight shift the mattress as he sat down behind me, pulling me into his lap.

"You know that your suspension means that you're going to miss spending time with me at school for three days." I muttered, trying desperately to keep focused on my work, which was hard when he started kissing up and down my neck.

"Hmm…it was still worth it. Assholes." Fang murmured against my skin, sending a pleasant warm feeling spreading throughout my body.

"Right, except now, you won't be there to be all big and bad and strong and protect me from all the guys trying to hit on me." I laughed, gently swatting him away.

"So I'll get Iggy to be your bodyguard. Doesn't matter. I think I made a point; they're not going to bother you, and you're dressing in old t-shirts and sweatpants for the next three days."

"Oh, I am, am I?" I questioned, pulling away from him enough so that I could turn around to face him with my eyebrows raised in surprise. "I don't know. I think I actually kind of like this style." Smiling jokingly, I just laughed at his glare.

"I'm never letting Angel and Nudge dress you up again." He muttered.


End file.
